At long last, draft season for season-long redraft fantasy leagues is right around the corner. Are you ready?
Home Leagues that use a redraft format are still the backbone of the fantasy football world, and from the middle of August through Labor Day weekend, countless home, work, and family leagues will go through the annual ritual of player selection. Family ties, work relationships, and friendships will be strengthened — or maybe tested — through a shared passion and friendly competition. Bragging rights are on the line. Prize money is on the line. Last place punishments loom. It really is the best.
Crushing your draft in a “home” league is very satisfying. But to do that you can’t just nail picking your starting lineup early in the process. Selections made towards the back end of the proceedings can make a huge difference, and I don’t mean grabbing your DST and kicker with your last two picks.
Today I’m giving you a handful of sleepers to target in the double-digit rounds. What’s a sleeper? Definitions vary, but for me it’s a player who’s likely to be available late in drafts (or who might not get drafted at all), and who brings an upside opportunity that could translate into a meaningful contribution in fantasy this year. Players like Kyler Murray, Jonathon Brooks, Blake Corum, Josh Downs, Jordyn Tyson, Isaiah Likely, and Mark Andrews will all go in the first 120 picks or so of most drafts and don’t qualify as “sleepers” this year. We’re going deeper than that, folks.
For this exercise, I’m only going to list quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends whose current Expert Consensus Ranking (ECR) is outside the Top-132. These are players who will often be available to you after completion of the 11th round in 12-team leagues, or who you can nab for a dollar or two in your auction draft. You’ll want to have sleeper targets ready when the draft hits the point where your league mates start to lose focus, are five or six beers in, and are on their phones bragging about their stacked team.
ECRs shown are for Half-point PPR, and any player rankings shown are also Half PPR, on a fantasy points per game (FPPG) basis, with Week 18 excluded.
Most sleeper calls won’t hit. That’s kind of the point. The majority of late-round picks will end up just riding your bench or being dropped. When you take swings with minimal draft capital, you get what you pay for. But if you totally whiff on your late picks, you’ll be at a disadvantage vs. managers who found value at the end of the draft. You usually need to hit on a sleeper or two to win your league.
Here’s a link to all of my preseason fantasy football content here at Big Blue View, including my July rankings, position previews, random thoughts, and more: Fantasy Football Hub. Coming soon: A Giants fantasy preview, and players to target and avoid at average draft cost.
Here we go, as they say in Pittsburgh. Listed below are some cheaply priced players who bring the kind of upside you want with your late-round dart throws.
Quarterback
Cutoff: B. Mayfield (ECR 120, QB18), J. Love (ECR 122, QB19), T. Shough (ECR 125 (QB20).
Sleepers:
Malik Willis (ECR 134, QB21)
Sam Darnold (ECR 141, QB23)
Cam Ward (ECR 153, QB24)
Jacoby Brissett (ECR: 173, QB27)
Quarterback is as deep as it’s ever been. Just look at the names right above the cutoff line and where they’re ranked. There are 17 QBs ranked ahead of that trio. Wow. Most of the players I listed as sleepers won’t get drafted in 1-QB leagues, but almost all will be taken in Superflex leagues where it’s good to get three viable options if you can.
Last year I had Matt Stafford and Jaxson Dart listed here. While I don’t think any of the sleepers listed above will hit like those two did (QB5 and QB12, respectively), there’s upside here, if you want to wait on your second quarterback in a Superflex or feel like throwing a dart on a second QB (in a 1-QB league) with a very late pick.
Willis only has a handful of starts to his name, but his per-start rushing average is around 60 yards per game, which is more than all-time NFL leader Lamar Jackson’s 56. His rushing upside is tantalizing. The Dolphins have a receiver room full of unknowns and rookies, but they should be playing from behind regularly and it’s unlikely Willis gets benched unless he’s truly awful, given what they paid him and what else they have. He’s worth a swing.
Ward’s rookie season was uneven to say the least, but he should benefit from the arrival of new OC Brian Daboll and the additions of Carnell Tate and Wan’Dale Robinson. Darnold might need to air it out more with Kenneth Walker gone and Zach Charbonnet on the mend, and he has the highest floor of the quarterbacks listed. Brissett will probably give way to Carson Beck at some point, but the Cardinals might be even worse than Miami and we saw what Brissett did last season while losing game after game (QB4 from Weeks 6-15), and he’s got weaponry. I do think Arizona’s new regime will try to be a little more balanced on offense, but still, Brissett has QB1 upside.
Running Back
Cutoff: T. Tracy, Jr. (ECR 126, RB42), C. Rodriguez, Jr. (ECR 127, RB43).
Sleepers:
Tank Bigsby (ECR 148, RB50)
Keaton Mitchell (ECR 149, RB51)
Jonah Coleman (R) (ECR 157, RB54)
Marshawn Lloyd (ECR 184, RB61)
I’m a big believer in grabbing several backup running backs with some of my later picks. You just never know when an injury will open the door to a big opportunity, and those can be league-winner situations. Waiver wire stampedes for backup running backs who get thrust into a starting role are a common occurrence in fantasy. Why not take a few preemptive swings to see if you can jump the line on that? Maybe you get a roster clogger, but it’s worth the potential upside if you can keep the space on your bench. The guys I’ve listed above are my favorite targets among the RBs going after Round 11.
Out of all the handcuffs/backups to Top-12 RBs in this range of the draft, I think Bigsby has the best odds of stepping into a very high percentage of the starter’s role in the event of injury, and Saquon Barkley is 29. On top of that, his 728 touches over the last two seasons (including playoffs) are the most in the NFL.
Mike McDaniel knows how to get the most out of a speed back, and Mitchell should have a nice change-of-pace and passing down role on the Chargers. Lloyd could see a big opportunity if Josh Jacobs gets hurt again or faces league discipline, which is still a possibility.
Coleman is an intriguing rookie – he’s big and strong which could earn him some goal-line reps, and he’s good in the passing game, which is a big plus for a back on a Sean Payton team. I won’t be shocked if he ends up being the top back (for fantasy) in Denver by the second half of the season.
Deep Sleepers (ECR of 190 or lower): Jaydon Blue, Nick Singleton (R), Kaytron Allen (R), Kaelon Black (R)
Wide Receiver:
Cutoff: J. Coker, K. Shakir, S. Diggs, R. Doubs (ECR 128-131, WR50-53).
Sleepers:
Matthew Golden (ECR 136, WR55)
Rashid Shaheed (ECR 138, WR56)
Denzel Boston (ECR 161, WR60)
D’Zhuan Stribling (R) (ECR 168, WR64)
Tre Harris (ECR 176, WR67)
Ryan Flournoy (ECR 183, WR69)
Jalen Nailor (ECR 188, WR70)
Wide receiver is a good place to shop in Rounds 8-11, and there are several high upside guys who I plan to target in that range (Jordyn Tyson, Chris Godwin, Josh Downs, and Jayden Reed head the list). It’s a decent part of the draft for WR value. It thins out some after that, and again, I plan on hammering backup running backs in the later rounds. It’s also easier to find serviceable wide receivers on the waiver wire as compared to RBs, which further argues for filling out your bench late with a bias towards RBs over WRs. Still, receiver is a deep position, and there are some sleepers with nice upside that you can find in the later rounds as well.
Golden was disappointing as a first-round pick rookie, but with the WR room in Green Bay finally thinned out, he has a good opportunity to make a big jump in year two. We’ll find out if he has the talent. The Seahawks never figured out how to use Shaheed after the midseason trade that brought him in, but he’s a big downfield weapon and I think he’ll be a lot more integrated and involved in 2026, and especially with Seattle possibly needing to throw more, or to manufacture rushing offense with more receiver carries and screens. That would play right into more of what Shaheed does well.
The rest of the names here and below either have an upside opportunity in a weak receiver room or are in good situations to produce as a third receiver in a high scoring offense. As always, prepare to be patient if you draft rookie receivers – if they pop, it’s often in the second half of the season.
Deep Sleepers (ECR of 210 or lower): Pat Bryant, Tank Dell, Malik Washington, Zachariah Branch (R), Darnell Mooney, Ja’Kobi Lane (R).
Tight End:
Cutoff: Jake Ferguson (ECR 119, TE14), Mark Andrews (ECR: 121, TE15).
Sleepers:
Juwan Johnson (ECR 139, TE16)
Chig Okonkwo (ECR 136, TE18)
T.J. Hockenson (ECR 166, TE22)
A.J. Barner (ECR 168, TE23)
Terrance Ferguson (ECR 186, TE25)
Tight end isn’t deep with quality starters, but there are multiple sleeper options, some of whom won’t get drafted since the tendency is not to draft a backup tight end other than in deeper leagues or tight end premium (TEP) formats. I think the sleeper tight ends listed above all have a chance to break out this season. Johnson is a steady producer on an ascending offense that’s not deep at receiver or tight end. Hockenson is a former Top-10 option at the position who is finally healthy again, and he’ll hopefully benefit from a QB upgrade. Barner was solid last season with six TDs, plus he added a big one in the Super Bowl. He also saw his snap share go from 45% in 2024 to 72% in 2025 and is an ascending player on a very good team.
I was higher on Okonkwo before the Stefon Diggs signing, but I still like his chances to have his best season now that he’s paired with Jayden Daniels. Whether that will make him worth starting in fantasy is an open question. T. Ferguson finds himself in a crowded TE room, but the Rams run a lot of multi-TE sets and don’t have much at receiver beyond their two star players. Ferguson is on a lot of breakout lists for 2026, and he’s free in drafts.
Deep Sleepers (ECR of 200 or lower): Gunnar Helm, Greg Dulcich
That’s my sleepers list for 2026. Keep it here for more fantasy draft prep content, and if you’re drafting in the next week, good luck!